The future of employment for specialists who work with students in need of extra support is unknown, according to the Nova Scotia Teachers Union.
School psychologists, speech-language pathologists and social workers who applied for term-position vacancies with the Halifax Regional Centre for Education were informed that “there are delays filling these positions” due to a lack of details regarding terms and conditions of employment.
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The Halifax Regional Centre for Education isn’t hiring any new permanent positions for specialists who have a variety of needs ranging from autism support to behavior and psychology.
The term positions that were available for the application have now closed, but those who applied were sent an email by the Halifax Regional Centre for Education stating the following:
“The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is working on finalizing terms & conditions of employment for applicants who accept a position that is currently vacant. As a result, the HRCE will delay the filling of these positions until details regarding terms and conditions of employment have been confirmed.”
According to the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, the delay is causing “widespread concern” among education specialists who are now uncertain of what their future employment may hold.
“There’s confusion around the terms and condition of these positions and there’s confusion about whether or not these people will be able to secure any more than a term position and that really affects them because they’re really looking for security when it comes to their job security for the future of their families,” said Liette Doucet, outgoing president of the NSTU.
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A late email statement from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Education attributed to spokesperson Heather Fairbairn reads states, “the HRCE is resuming their normal hiring processes as soon as possible. It is important to have these new supports available to students for the coming school year.
“The salary and terms and conditions of the new speech-language pathologists and school psychologists have now been confirmed.”
As for when the normal hiring process will resume, that remains to be determined. It’s a grey area that the union feels is impacting recruitment of education specialists.
“These specialists have taken these courses so they can work in a specific field within the education system and right now it’s not even clear if they will be working in the education system for the education department, it’s possible they might be working for a different department, we’re not clear on that,” Doucet said.